Leah's Birth Day

So I'm finally getting around to updating our blog with news about the arrival of our newest family member. Our sweet Leah surprised us by deciding to join our our little family on Tuesday, May 25th. She decided to pick her own birthday rather than waiting to be induced.

That Tuesday morning started out very normally. Ross left for work around 7:30 and then I got up and started getting ready for work when I realized that my water had started to break and was leaking. So I called Ross (who hadn't even opened his office yet) and told him he better come back home. By this time contractions had started and were already coming five minutes or less apart. I also called my dad who works near by and he came over to help Ross give me a blessing before leaving for the hospital. We got to the hospital around 9:00 and by then the contractions were already very steady and intense and only a few minutes apart.

We thought it was odd though that our experience was nothing like what you see in the movies or on TV. The receptionist didn't seem in any rush to get us to a room. We were expecting hospital staff to come quickly to our aide with a wheel chair or something. Instead she told us to have a seat in the waiting room area and she would be with us in a minute. I was so glad that Ross was there at this time because it would have been extremely difficult to answer all the receptionist's questions (which I had already answered TWICE through their pre-admission process) while I was pacing the floor waiting for the contractions to subside. She finally took us to a room and left us there to wait for a nurse to come. We waited for what seemed like way too long (again not like the movies) before a nurse finally came to help us out.

When the nurse checked me, she said my water had definitely broke and that I was dilated to a 3 and 1/2. I was in a lot of pain by now and was ready for an epidural. We found out later that the baby was was sitting posterier at the time, so the contractions very painful across my back. (Luckily she got herself turned back around in time for actual delivery.)

After getting the epidural, I felt so much better and could just relax and wait for things to progress on their own. And that they did...at a very quick pace. An hour later I was at a 5 and another hour later up to an 8! The nurse was surprised at how fast I was progressing considering this was my first baby. Before long I was pushing and at 3:54 pm our little Leah was born. And our lives haven't been he same since...they've been better!!!

She was 7 lbs and 7 oz (exactly what I weighed) and was 18 inches long. She was born with lots of black hair (also just like me). I was so excited when the nurse told us our baby had lots of hair!

The proud Daddy!The exhausted mommy!Getting cleaned up.All cleaned up and looking cute! Ross picked out the blue bow for her hair. Here's just a few picutres of her admiring visitors. She had lots of people excited to finally meet her...

Getting ready to go home. Leah is such a good baby. We LOVE her so much already!

The Latest News...

So we had our regular appointment with the doctor on Wednesday. Everything was pretty routine and pretty uneventful until the doctor asked if we had any questions. So I brought up the gestational diabetes and asked if I would need to be induced early. Apparently that had been a slight oversight until this point, and to make a long story short, the doctor realized that we needed to get on top of things quick.

So I went back to the doctor again today. He did a quick ultrasound to check the amniotic fluid. That was normal. Then he did a non-stress test. She had a good heart beat - I could hear it all through the test. But she squirmed around so much during the test that the monitor was having a hard time getting a consistent reading. The doctor was glad that she was being so active. That's a good sign. But it was making the test take a lot longer than normal. He finally just held the monitor tight against my stomach and tried to follow her heart beat around until he could get a good consistent test reading. In the end, we did pass the non-stress test. Another good sign.

Then when he realized that I am 38 weeks today he decided to check to see if I was dilating yet. I wasn't exactly expecting that today, and wasn't too excited because I knew it would hurt (and I was right) but I figured "Sure, why not." He said I was dilated to a 2 or a 3. So things are progressing. Yet another good sign.

The next step is to have a growth scan this Wednesday morning at the hospital. This will measure the size of the baby to help determine if she is still small enough for a normal birth or if a c-section will be necessary.

The doctor doesn't like his patients with gestational diabetes to go past 39 weeks, so he went ahead and scheduled for us to be induced next Thursday. So if she hasn't decided to make an appearance on her own by then, she will be "helped along" so to speak. Regardless, she will definitely be early.

That means Ross and I are down to our last week (or less) of just the two of us. Soon our sweet little girl will be here and we will finally get to meet her! EXCITING!!!

An Update on Ross

I don't want people who read this blog to think that life with the Leslies is all about me and the pregnancy. So I'm going to do a post that is all about Ross.

In addition to putting up with a pregnant wife, Ross has been quite busy lately. Most of his time can be summed up in two words...Elders Quorum. In the past month or so he has helped prep and paint a sister in our ward's home, helped move concrete from another family's home, helped with a neighborhood clean up, helped clean the church a few Saturday mornings, locked up the church every night for a week, held weekly presidency meetings, attended MANY meetings on Sundays, prepared and planned a Sunday lesson, updated home teaching routes and made more phone calls than he'd ever like to in order to take care of Elders Quorum assignments.

As busy as that sounds, Elders Quorum is not his whole life. Now that baseball season is in full swing, Ross likes keep tabs on what is going on in the world of baseball. He has a fantasy team, so he'll often check up on the stats online at the end of the day or in the sports section of the daily newspaper. Sometimes he'll watch part of a game on TV. When the weather has been good enough, he as also attended a few BYU baseball games or even an occasional high school game.

As the school year comes to an end, things are slowing down a little bit for him at work. March and April were more busy for him. That is when they took care of most of the students' IEPs and started getting things wrapped up for the year.

On days when the weather is nice (which is really hit and miss lately), Ross likes to get outside and go for a run. He also likes to go to the library and check out books, movies or books on CD.

In addition to all this, he also takes the time to be a good husband and help out around the house. He does most of our grocery shopping, helps me carry loads of laundry up and down the stairs, vacuums and helps with setting the table and cleaning up after dinner. He has been very helpful in making sure we are getting things done to prepare for the baby including shopping for baby gear which I'm sure isn't his favorite thing to do. He's also very good at making sure we hold FHE every week and daily scripture study and family prayer.

Life with the Leslies wouldn't be the same without Ross. He is a wonderful husband and I'm sure he'll be a great dad. And if he knew I was writing this post, he'd probably try to talk me out of it since he typically doesn't like extra attention. But he rarely remembers to read our blog...so I should be safe.

Baby Shower

My mom and sisters threw a baby shower for me over the weekend. First of all, a BIG thanks to my mom and sisters (that includes my sisters-in-law) for all the hard work they put into it. And thanks to everyone to came, or sent a gift, or wished us well even if they couldn't come. I really appreciate all the love and support we have got throughout the pregnancy.

I have to start out with this picture for my dad. This is me and my sister, Lyndsee. I am 35 weeks along and she is 31 weeks. My dad always wants us to "belly bump." So we humored him for this picture!

Here are a few more pictures from the shower. Most of the pictures turned out blurry or else I'm talking in the picture, so I don't have very many good shots. I have lots of pictures of the guests too, but I'll spare each of them the possibly unwanted pleasure of being posted on our blog...

Our little girl got lots of blankets and outfits! She will be very warm and well dressed in very cute clothes for quite a while!
A special "Thank You" to my sister-in-law, Melissa, who made these adorable decorations for us to keep. There's a cake, giraffe, monkey and two elephants all made out of diapers, socks, wash cloths and other assorted baby commodities. She is so creative and good with this kind of stuff!
Thanks again to everyone for everything. Only a month left...at least we are a little more prepared now.

It's Definitely A Girl!

At the 20 week ultrasound, the doctor was pretty sure it was a girl, but he wouldn’t put it in the chart because he couldn’t get a good enough view to be positive. This left me always wondering in the back of my mind, “Could it be a boy?” However, we had another ultrasound this week and one of the first things he saw was evidence that she was in fact a girl. As he rolled the ultrasound over my belly later in the ultrasound I could hear him say to himself again “Oh yeah, definitely a girl.” And he did put it in the chart this time.

I love seeing the ultrasound images even though I can hardly ever tell what I’m looking at. But one of my favorite parts of this ultrasound was when he was showing us her face – where her eyes were and how there was a hand up by her mouth, possibly because she was sucking on it - when suddenly he moved the ultrasound thing just a little bit and a foot popped up on the screen. Now even I can tell what a foot looks like in an ultrasound and this was unmistakably a foot! Even the doctor was surprised to see her foot up so close to her face. He said that is common if the baby is breech, but she was positioned head-down just like she should be. I guess when quarters are tight (which they definitely are right now) your foot has to go somewhere!

So everything with the pregnancy seems to be going well. She is still a “mover and a shaker.” I don’t know what she is doing in there some days, but she seems to enjoy doing it. Yesterday I was wondering if she was possibly playing the drums. I keep thinking that she must be running out of room because it sure feels like it to me. But she still insists on moving around a lot (although I can’t imagine who she could have inherited such stubbornness from). We’re down to just six weeks now and getting more and more excited to finally meet our little girl!

Surf's Up

So last night was my last night working in the baptistry at the temple. As a goodbye gift, some of the WONDERFUL sisters on my shift gave me this "Oh So Cute" baby gift. One of the sisters brought the suit back from her recent trip to Hawaii! I told her now our little one will be ready to "swim" in the hot tub with all her Tucker cousins. If she is anything like her mom, she will love soaking in the hot tub (her dad is a pretty big fan too). Of course when she's little it will be more like little dips in the water, but she'll look so cute doing it.

A Busy Easter & General Conference Weekend

Ross and I had a very busy Easter/General Conference weekend. It started on Friday night when we went to see “Les Miserables” performed at a local theater. The cast was entirely made up of youth – mostly high school age. What talent! They did an amazing job. However, Ross and I both realized that neither of us really knows much about this story. Ross had watched the movie version recently, but this version was entirely musical (it kind of had an opera feel) and was harder for us to follow. I felt a little bit like I do when I watch Shakespearian plays – I get the gist of what’s happening, but the details are VERY vague! Overall, we both enjoyed it and were glad we went.

Saturday was very busy. Ross helped clean the church in the morning and got home just in time for conference to start. We watched the first half at home then listened to the second half in the car on the way to our Putnam Family Easter party. Between sessions we had lunch and visited with those at the party. We left just in time to get to my parents’ house to watch the second session. After it was over, we left so Ross could go to the priesthood session with his brother, Kyle. When the guys were done, Kyle, Amy, Ross and I went out for some yummy Thai food (which was not good for my blood sugar, but I loved it anyway) and then we spent the night at Ross’s mom’s house.

Sunday morning we watched the morning session of conference with Kyle and Amy and then drove back to my parents’ house for the last session. After the session we had a nice Easter dinner with some of my family and Grandma and Grandpa Putnam. Then we went to the Turner’s house for their traditional after-conference family home evening. It was a busy weekend, but as I told Ross, I was so glad we were able to make it work so we could participate in everything we wanted to and spend time with a lot of wonderful people this weekend.